Hello again, everyone! This week is starting off to a sunny start here in Dixie. This past weekend has been very eventful for us as a family. From minor plumbing issues to having to purchase yet another dishwasher, this past weekend was anything but boring. Thankfully, with the start of each new week’s, there’s the pleasant certainty of a well planned, money-saving meal plan. A plan I am ever so grateful to have!
This week’s menu again reflects our need to eat down our food stockpile. As we are having to consume everything we have on-hand first, though we did purchase several items food and home consumables, each of which garnered us back online app rebates, which will give us groceries and products that can help us in the weeks to come for our family of three as part of a minimalist meal plan.
Here’s a recap for those new to minimalist meal planning. There are the five categories I took into consideration when setting up this month’s minimalist meal plan:
Consistency: The goal of minimalist meal planning is to consistently prepare and present my family with home cooked, healthy meals each day this month.
Cost: Posted meal plans are based on seasonal sales cycles with attention paid to both frugality and minimalist efficiency. This week’s menu reflects our budget of $160.00 monthly for a family of three.
Power Consumption: I wanted to plan meals that do not require vast amounts of energy zapping stove-top and range preparation. A little food for thought: did you know that it costs an average of 18-24 cents an hour to run a gas range, 24-30 cents an hour for an electric range, 16-20 cents an hour for a microwave oven, a mere 3-5 cents an hour to run a toaster oven or convection top. With this in mind, I will be gearing this month’s meal planning to encompass dishes that utilize minimalist power consumption standards. Meals this month will utilize my toaster oven and convection stove top for all my baking and needs.
Streamlining: I was a little apprehensive about whether or not my family will be turned off of the idea of food simplicity. I quickly realized that my family loves whatever I cook them, and with this, in mind, extreme food plan simplicity will give me an extra hour each day to devote to spending time with my family and not in my kitchen. In order to streamline my meal plans, to have a true minimalist food strategy I am going to assign each day of the week with a single meal.
Travel: I wanted meals that could be planned monthly in advanced and shopped for locally (I live in a small town with limited mass shopping or chain retailer options) either weekly or monthly, depending on need. As I shop in reverse, buying groceries on rock bottom pricing and then shop from my pantry, this keeps weekly food costs low. And in terms of monthly shopping as a minimalist, this week was the first week this month I purchased additional groceries which can be seen below:
- Vanilla Bean Flavored Espresso, $1.00 (Submitted for $0.25 iBotta credit)
- Hillandale 8-Count Eggs, $0.50
- Hills Black Beans, $1.00
- 2 Mucinex 6-packs (each pack sells at Walmart for $4.98 each, a savings of $7.98)
- Tie Farms Frozen Broccoli, $1.00 (Submitted for $0.25 iBotta credit)
- 2 Pict Sweet Steamables, $0.50 each
- Total: $6.00 after rebates
- 1 bags of Celery, $0.49 each bag
- BOGO Borden Shreds, $1.99 for both bags
- White bread loaf, $0.49
- Vowell’s Kosher Salt Canister, $0.39
- 10 pounds bag of red potatoes, $1.50
- Oreo Singles, $0.69 each (Submitted for $1.00 off two from Checkout51)
- 18-count eggs, $1.50
- 2 Vowell’s brand gluten-free pasta, $0.69 per bag
- Total: $6.43 after rebates
- Value brand strawberry yogurt 4-pack, $1.00
- 2 bags of Carrots, $0.69 per bag
- Sweet potatoes, $1.58 per bag (submitted for 20% back with Saving Star App)
- 2 Dr. Thunder 2-liters, $0.88 each
- Value brand wipes, $0.88
- Value brand Unsweetened Almond Milk, half a gallon, $2.68
- Value brand toilet paper 4-packs, $0.58 each
- Smithfield marinated pork roast, $5.01 (submitted for $2.00 iBotta rebate)
- 2 Suave body washes, $1.29 each (submitted for $1.00 iBotta rebate)
- Organic Blue Agave, $3.98 (submitted for $1.00 iBotta rebate)
- Ajax, $0.88 (submitted for $0.20 iBotta rebate)
- Zote bar, $0.98 (submitted for $0.50 iBotta rebate)
- Antacids, $0.88 (submitted for $0.50 MobiSave rebate)
- Total: $17.08 after rebates
- To create your own minimalist meal plan, think about which dinners are your family’s favorites that don’t take too much effort to prepare.
- Consider which do you prefer to cook?
- Think comfort meals. Think simple and keep it basic.
- When creating your meal calendar this week assign one meal to each day of the week, taking into account school, work, and activity schedules. Leave your least busy days for meals that take the most amount of time to prepare.
- Leave one day open each week for creativity in the kitchen, for ethnic, slow-cooked, heavy on the ingredient, new to you from Pinterest meals for weekends or Tuesday and Thursdays when poser usage rates nationally tend to be 20-30% lower on average. Focus on energy, your own and your household power usage as well!
- Themes can be your best friend in minimalist cooking plans. Think Meatless Monday’s, Meatball Monday’s, Taco Tuesdays, Tofu Tuesday’s, Stirfry Wednesday’s, and Slow-Cooker Sunday’s!
- Adjusting two meals a week to meatless options can help lower your grocery budgets by a quarter each month. This month we will be trying to expand Meatless Monday’s to also be Meatless Thursday’s as well.
- This month breakfast, snacks, and lunches will be standardized. We will be having sandwiches for lunch, cereal, and smoothies for breakfast. And yes you could do without snacks and increase lunch and breakfast portions, but I find smaller meals several times a day work better for my health, and so that’s how we will be rolling.
So what does this leave me with? My new monthly minimalist meal plan will consist of default meals streamlined around items already on hand that requires less than a half hour to prepare and costs under $5.00 per meal to create.
Monday
Breakfast: Cereal with almond milk and strawberries.
Lunch: Turkey and cheese sliders, with Crystal light lemonade.
Snack: Grapes and String Cheese.
Dinner: Three bean vegetarian chili, steamed corn, and corn bread.
Dessert: Greek yogurt, granola, and blueberries.
Tuesday
Breakfast: Cereal with almond milk and strawberries.
Lunch: Turkey and cheese sliders, with Crystal light lemonade.
Snack: Grapes and String Cheese.
Dinner: Taco Tuesday.
Dessert: Greek yogurt, granola, and blueberries.
Wednesday
Breakfast: Cereal with almond milk and strawberries.
Lunch: Turkey and cheese sliders, with Crystal light lemonade.
Snack: Grapes and String Cheese.
Dinner: Chicken, carrot, broccoli quinoa bake, with Crystal Light lemonade.
Dessert: Greek yogurt, granola, and blueberries.
Thursday
Breakfast: Cereal with almond milk and strawberries.
Lunch: Turkey and cheese sliders, with Crystal light lemonade.
Snack: Grapes and String Cheese.
Dinner: Bakes Zucchini, Greek yogurt, and quinoa gyros, with Crystal light lemonade.
Dessert: Greek yogurt, granola, and blueberries.
Friday
Breakfast: Cereal with almond milk and strawberries.
Lunch: Turkey and cheese sliders, with Crystal light lemonade.
Snack: Grapes and String Cheese.
Dinner: Meatball hoagies, side salad with Greek Yogurt dressing, and Crystal Light.
Dessert: Greek yogurt, granola, and blueberries.
Saturday
Breakfast: Cereal with almond milk and strawberries.
Lunch: Turkey and cheese sliders, with Crystal light lemonade.
Snacks: Grapes and String Cheese.
Dinner: Chicken mole, served with steamed rice, corn, and Crystal Light.
Dessert: Greek yogurt, granola, and blueberries.
Sunday
Breakfast: Cereal with almond milk and strawberries.
Lunch: Turkey and cheese sliders, with Crystal light lemonade.
Snack: Grapes and String Cheese.
Dinner: Crockpot cheddar, chicken, and broccoli rice, with green beans and Crystal Light lemonade.
Dessert: Greek yogurt, granola, and blueberries.
Cost of food shopped from pantry and freezer: $26.45
So that’s all, everyone! I’m hoping that this streamlined plan will leave me feeling anything but restricted. With my family eating well and meal planning becoming more automated, I’m thinking of bringing back Family Game Nights! Incorporating minimalism into my weekly meal planning will help me be a few steps closer to realizing my minimalist dream. That said, if this streamlined plan doesn’t work for my family this month I can always change my plan again!
I’m ready to take back an extra hour from my day, each and every day this month. I’m ready to devote more time to creative endeavors, taking advantage of work opportunities, spending time with my family, and not slaving over a hot stove.
So, that’s what we will be having this week. I’d love to hear what’s on your menu as well!
Here’s to meal planning success,
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